Scott Donald Sampson (born April 22, 1961) is a Canadian paleontologist and science communicator. Sampson is currently the Executive Director of California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, California. He was previously Vice President of Research & Collections and Chief Curator at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science,. Sampson is notable for his work on the carnivorous theropod dinosaurs Majungasaurus and Masiakasaurus and his extensive research into the Late Cretaceous Period, particularly in Madagascar. He is also known as the presenter of the PBS Kids show Dinosaur Train. Background Sampson was born in the neighborhood of Dunbar-Southlands in Vancouver, British Columbia. He attended Point Grey Secondary School. Sampson studied for a Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of Toronto. For his doctorate he produced a thesis on two newly found species of ceratopsids, dated to the Late Cretaceous period in Montana and the growth and function of ceratopsid horns and frills. Sampson graduated from the University of Toronto in 1993 and worked for a year at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Then he worked for five years as an assistant professor of anatomy at the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine on Long Island. In 1999 he accepted positions as assistant professor in the Department of Geology and Geophysics and curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Utah Museum of Natural History (nowadays called the Natural History Museum of Utah and relocated in the new Rio Tinto Center as of 2011). Sampson resided in California at this time, but continued his research with the Utah museum as a research curator. In February 2013, Sampson took a position as Vice President of Research and Collections at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Sampson is featured as "Dr. Scott the paleontologist" on the PBS television series, Dinosaur Train. In this television series he mentions he gave Masiakasaurus its name and also mentions on a separate episode of The Dinosaur Train that he participated in naming Kosmoceratops. In 2003 he hosted Dinosaur Planet, a series of four animated nature documentaries which aired on the Discovery Channel. The series was narrated by Christian Slater. His first book, Dinosaur Odyssey: Fossil Threads in the Web of Life was published by University of California Press in 2009. The book, aimed at the general public reconstructs the odyssey of the dinosaurs from their origins on the supercontinent of Pangaea, and explores